GS Inner Mudguards

pottsy

Citroen Loony & BMC Nutter.
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OK, here we go with my first post on the new, all singing and dancing forum.
Looks great by the way GibGib, and thanks for all you do here.

To the meat. Having discovered that GiSelle has been suffering a small amount of green incontinence, I decided to seek the source of the dribbling.

It seemed to concentrate around the area where the return lines all congregate, just between the right brake assembly and the inner guard, and down low level or below the subframe.

I removed everything that I could see was in the way, and discovered that a pipe appeared to have slipped slightly off the moulded collector, exposing a virginal bit of pale plastic. More on this a bit later.

Thinking that it would be good to get as much access to the area before cleaning and rectification, I proceeded to unbolt the RH guard with the intention of unbolting the RH inner guard. I based this action on the spare inner guard I have from the Stash which is clearly an unbolted panel.

Mr Citroen never ceases to amaze me at the way he can put the kibosh on one's best laid plans. GiSelle seems to have been welded together, presumably at the factory. The inner panel is different as chalk and cheese from the spare.

Some more research in the parts book and Marc Stabel's excellent GS book has failed to shed any illumination on this conundrumation. Nowhere is there diagram or mention of a change from bolted to welded, or vice versa.

The spare panel bears a body number of GXGB 23GB xxxx which, from Bruce's database, seems to indicate it came from a 1974 car. (GerryPro may be able to elucidate since the panel came from him originally). GiSelle is a 35GB and is nominally a 1975 car, first year of the Pallas series. I'm assuming that perhaps the bolt on panels came first, then it was decided to weld them in.

Anyone care to enlighten us all on this?

Anyway, After a thorough de-grease and wash I was able to actually slide the offending pipe back up to it's proper position and she seems to have got over her "lack of control" in regard to fluids. The pipes onto the collector all seem to be originals in that they have those godawful bands with the split pin in them. I've chosen to not try to tighten or replace them for a couple of reasons, not the least being a lack of desire to delve that deep at present and also a reluctance to disturb what is not currently leaking. I guess that down the track if I ever remove the mechanicals and or the subframe would be a good time to address it, but for now I'm happy with a temporary fix.

The photo below shows the virginal bit of exposed pipe and is before the cleaning process.
Bolted inner guard 1.jpg
Bolted inner guard 2.jpg
GiSelle inner guard.jpg
Closeup.jpg
 
Hi Pottsy,
AXGT and I have been having a bit of a battle in that area as well. We thought we had done enough to stem the flow when we had the gearbox out but no, huge pools of green on the cardboard after an engine start and hydraulic pump up. So there are several possibilities.
1. The nylon congregator could have been bent a bit too far and have a crack in one or more of the pipes joining onto the centre bit.
2. The rubber bits are 40+ years old and may have cracks in them. Quite a few of the rubber bits also have internal diameter changes from one end to the other just to make it a bit more interesting.
3. The rubber has squashed under the ligarex and the rubber hose is now loose on the pipe. We have replaced most of the ligarex with screw clamps by now.
4. Also add a screw clamp to the rubber return pipe from the front height corrector as this gets disturbed when manipulating all the other pipes.

Luckily you got through the roadworthy test before it really got going.

Hope you have lots of spare LHM.

Cheers, Ken
 
From 1975 inner guards were welded, though my first-sold-August-1976 South African assembled wagon has bolt-ons, just another of its irregularities. Came as a surprise to me when I first saw a local 1975 car with welded inner guards.
 
Thanks Bruce, that sort of confirms my suspicion.

Ken, the leak was only a slight drip and only apparent recently. Up until then she held her fluids like a Lady should.

I suspect that the line that had slipped back along the plastic nipple is in fact the return line from the front height corrector, which I've had out and re-conditioned. I can only blame myself for a small amount of ham-fistedness.

One day I'll address replacing the bands but not yet. If I ever remove the noisy twirly bits I will be able to get at the thing properly, or at least a bit easier. As you can see in the grotty "before" photo, the main return has already had a worm drive clamp fitted, which I was able to take up a turn on as well.

Thanks for the feedback chaps.

Onwards and upwards! Pottsy.
 
Well we progress, but at the cost of some sanity I suspect!

The leak hadn't gone away, it was just hiding from me.

It seems that when I removed and recoed the height corrector, I may have shifted the location of the nylon (?) return line. It decided that, since it's Winter, it should cosy up to the part of the exhaust where the pre-heater pipe enters the mainstream.

Metal pipe, exhaust heat, "plastic" pipe. What could possibly go wrong?

The return line cosied up alright, then the fickle exhaust melted its heart, turning it into a nicely curved crispy critter which leaked when the height corrector was sending back some fluid it was finished with!

The pictures tell the story. Fortunately I have a replacement in the Stash.

The loss of sanity involves deciding to replace the cobbled up pre-heater pipe with the new one I bought a while back. Getting that part of the exhaust pipe out is simply horrendous! Put that down as one of the jobs best only attempted when the noisy twirly bits are on the bench, rather than in the car!

I'll look closely at all the bits I can now get to with a view to cleaning and replacing as much as I can.

In the meantime, it's beer o'clock.

Cheers for now, PottsyCrispy.jpgTouching the preheater.jpgMoulded to the pipe.jpg
 
Last edited:
OK, here we go with my first post on the new, all singing and dancing forum.
Looks great by the way GibGib, and thanks for all you do here.

To the meat. Having discovered that GiSelle has been suffering a small amount of green incontinence, I decided to seek the source of the dribbling.

It seemed to concentrate around the area where the return lines all congregate, just between the right brake assembly and the inner guard, and down low level or below the subframe.

I removed everything that I could see was in the way, and discovered that a pipe appeared to have slipped slightly off the moulded collector, exposing a virginal bit of pale plastic. More on this a bit later.

Thinking that it would be good to get as much access to the area before cleaning and rectification, I proceeded to unbolt the RH guard with the intention of unbolting the RH inner guard. I based this action on the spare inner guard I have from the Stash which is clearly an unbolted panel.

Mr Citroen never ceases to amaze me at the way he can put the kibosh on one's best laid plans. GiSelle seems to have been welded together, presumably at the factory. The inner panel is different as chalk and cheese from the spare.

Some more research in the parts book and Marc Stabel's excellent GS book has failed to shed any illumination on this conundrumation. Nowhere is there diagram or mention of a change from bolted to welded, or vice versa.

The spare panel bears a body number of GXGB 23GB xxxx which, from Bruce's database, seems to indicate it came from a 1974 car. (GerryPro may be able to elucidate since the panel came from him originally). GiSelle is a 35GB and is nominally a 1975 car, first year of the Pallas series. I'm assuming that perhaps the bolt on panels came first, then it was decided to weld them in.

Anyone care to enlighten us all on this?

Anyway, After a thorough de-grease and wash I was able to actually slide the offending pipe back up to it's proper position and she seems to have got over her "lack of control" in regard to fluids. The pipes onto the collector all seem to be originals in that they have those godawful bands with the split pin in them. I've chosen to not try to tighten or replace them for a couple of reasons, not the least being a lack of desire to delve that deep at present and also a reluctance to disturb what is not currently leaking. I guess that down the track if I ever remove the mechanicals and or the subframe would be a good time to address it, but for now I'm happy with a temporary fix.

The photo below shows the virginal bit of exposed pipe and is before the cleaning process.View attachment 121385View attachment 121386View attachment 121387View attachment 121388
Hi Pottsy! The spares came from a 73 car which was purchased from Tom Grucza.
 
Well I'm now more confident than before that I've found the source of the green incontinence.

Once I wrestled all the exhaust assembly back together, not my favorite task, I could run the motor and check that the leak was gone.

Of course it wasn't, it just wasn't coming from the burnt bit any more.

Further delving decided me on tackling the main line from the plastic collector back to the tank, since this seemed to be the highest point and possibly where the dribbling was originating. I was right. After contorting enough to remove the pipe from the collector, I turned the end over and Eureka! therewith was a cracked pipe.

I've replaced it now, cleaned up the area and pressurised the system a couple of times. After a cuppa and lunch I'll go and see if there's any more stray fluid come out.

Fingers Crossed Peoples! Pottsy.
 

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